A Chilliwack company is under investigation after an undercover video revealed “absolutely sickening” acts of alleged animal abuse and torture, said the B.C. SPCA.

The footage was captured by animal-welfare group Mercy for Animals between May 10 and June 9 at Elite Farm Services Ltd. and involved several workers and a supervisor.

It shows workers dismembering chickens, hitting the birds, carelessly tossing them around, and forcing them into violent sexual acts with one another, said the SPCA.

“It displays some of the most callous and sadistic actions involving animals that I’ve ever seen,” said Marcie Moriarty, the SPCA’s chief prevention and enforcement officer, on Monday.

“It is extremely difficult to watch.”

Elite Farm Services is a chicken-catching company hired to round up broiler chickens for transport to a slaughter plant in Port Coquitlam, said the SPCA, which received a written complaint and a 16-minute video from Mercy for Animals on Friday and immediately launched an investigation.

It is the first time complaint the SPCA has received against the company, said Moriarty.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT.

Krista Hiddema, vice-president at Mercy for Animals, said her group also filed a complaint with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

An undercover operation by the non-profit group in 2014 led to an investigation at Chilliwack Cattle Sales Ltd. and convictions and jail time under the B.C. Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

This latest investigation, however, was much more disturbing, said Hiddema.

The alleged actions in the video were “the most sadistic animal cruelty we have ever witnessed in the 12 undercover exposes we have done in Canada,” she said.

“Part of what we witnessed was an incident where one worker had twisted the neck of a bird and had forced that bird’s head into the sex organ of another bird.”

That graphic footage was not included in a shortened video the group released Monday. In the 2:35 video, workers can be seen jamming poultry into overcrowded crates, hurling birds against the wall. One person can be seen stepping on a live chicken, and then hitting it.

Elite Farm Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday evening.

Moriarty said the people in the video and the company need to be held accountable for their actions.

The SPCA also called on the B.C.’s poultry industry to take action by suspending contracts to Elite Farms. It said it plans to recommend charges of animal cruelty under both the Criminal Code of Canada and under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

If convicted, the individuals and company could face a fine up to $75,000, a maximum five-year jail sentence, and a maximum lifetime ban on owning or being around animals.